Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3)

by Janet Edwards

  “I understand,” I said grimly.

  Morton shifted uneasily in his chair. “I’m tired and in pain, so we’ll have to end this discussion soon.”

  “I’m sure you don’t need to fear your operation,” I said. “Your surgeon and I were friends on Teen Level. I can assure you that Atticus isn’t just highly skilled, but compassionate and dedicated.”

  “I know you lived on the same corridor as Atticus when you were on Teen Level,” said Morton. “That’s why I chose him to be my surgeon.”

  I gave a bewildered shake of my head. “What?”

  “My Tactical Commander was trying everything she could to help me be more positive about my chances of surviving the operation. She arranged for Lottery to pause the allocation process so I could choose my surgeon from among the best six candidates. Saanvi wanted to go through all their respective skills with me, but I knew they were all equally able candidates. If one had really been significantly better than the others, then I would never have been allowed to make the final decision.”

  Morton shrugged. “So I decided to look for links between the candidates and my lucky numbers. Saanvi and I were going through the area, corridor, and room numbers where each candidate had lived on Teen Level, when Saanvi noticed that one of the candidates had lived on the same corridor as the newly discovered telepath.”

  Morton smiled. “I thought the link between you and Atticus was a sign I should choose him as my surgeon. It seems that it was also a sign that you would bring me news of Celandine. You are right that I don’t need to fear my operation, Amber. Celandine is alive and has forgiven me, so justice has sheathed his sword. Atticus will operate on me, and I will live to serve the Hive for years to come.”

  Morton’s superstitious ideas made no sense to me, but I wasn’t going to argue with anything that meant he’d go into his operation with the belief that he would live rather than die.

  “I’d better let you rest now.”

  “Yes,” said Morton. “I can rest now.”

  He ended the call, and I went to lie on the grass by the stream. I stared up at the sun-effect lighting in the blue-painted ceiling, thinking through everything that had happened since our trip to the Level 67 beach to help Morton with his target.

  I’d learned the reason telepaths must never meet, and it frightened me. The greatest danger to a telepath was another telepath.

  I’d learned the reason sea farms existed, and that was even more terrifying. No civilization lasted forever, and the sea farms were there as preparation for the day when the Hive cities fell.

  I’d learned the reason why I found Megan so annoying, and I’d try to overcome my unfair resentment of her, but I’d probably fail. Part of me would always blame Megan for the fact I was a telepath.

  There was another question that had been haunting me. The question of what work Lottery would have assigned me if I’d been an ordinary girl. It was possible for me to learn the answer to that too. Lucas had done a special test run of Lottery for Juniper, so I could pressure him into doing the same for me.

  I could discover the future that other Amber would have had, what profession she’d have been assigned, and what level of the Hive she would have lived on, but it would be a dreadful mistake. I’d been hit by the blast of pure joy when Juniper learned her Lottery result. If I learned my Lottery result, and knew that ideal life was forever blocked from me because my Hive needed me as a telepath, I would be hit by bitterness rather than joy, and that bitterness could sour my whole life.

  I had to forget the past and focus on the future. The New Year festival was approaching fast, and 2533 would bring more cases to solve and new questions to answer. I remembered going on the school geography trip when I was seven years old. Our teachers took a crowd of us down in a lift to Level 100, and then we rode the moving stairs up through all the hundred accommodation levels of the Hive.

  I’d been stunned and proud to belong to such a vast world. Now I’d discovered the world of Outside was even bigger than the Hive, and I belonged to that too. I’d let Morton believe that going to the sea farm had left me unchanged, but it was fortunate he’d never be able to read my thoughts. If he did, then he’d see the betraying colour, shape, scent of sea farm minds, which came from the influence of other Hives.

  I heard a warbling sound from overhead, and a calm, computerized voice spoke. “Unit emergency alert. Unit emergency alert. We have an incident in progress. Operational teams to stations. Strike team to lift 2.”

  We hadn’t even had time to unpack, and we had another case. I scrambled to my feet and started running to my apartment to get my body armour and ear crystal.

  I was still loyal to the Hive, I would still rush to defend it, but something within me had changed. I’d shared the thoughts of people who lived their lives Outside. I’d read the mind of a generous-hearted woman born under the rule of a different Hive. I’d learned how it felt to be caught in a storm at sea, and sight the reassuring beacon of another Hive’s sea farm.

  I had breathed the hurricane winds of Outside, and they had changed me like the demon breath of the hunter of souls. The Hive was my world, it would always be my world, it just wasn’t my only world any longer.

  Message from Janet Edwards

  Thank you for reading Hurricane. This book is the third full-length book in the Hive Mind series. I have more full-length books planned for this series, and there is also a prequel novella, Perilous. You can make sure you don’t miss future books in this and my other fictional universes by signing up to get an email alert when there’s a new release.

  You may also be interested in my books set in the very different Portal Future universe, where humanity portals between hundreds of different colony worlds scattered across space. These books include the Earth Girl trilogy, the Scavenger Exodus series, and related stories. Please continue reading for a sample chapter of Scavenger Alliance, the first book in the Scavenger Exodus series.

  You can visit me online at my website to see the current full list of my books, including suggestions on the reading order.

  I’d like to thank Juliet Lai, Andrew Angel, Cindy Smith, Alice Mercer, Charlotte Staines, Rachel Krosky, Jennefer Jones, and Christina Sherwood for Beta reading Hurricane. Any remaining problems are entirely my fault.

  Best wishes from Janet Edwards

  Books by Janet Edwards

  Set in the Hive Future

  The Hive Mind series:-

  PERILOUS: Hive Mind A Prequel Novella

  TELEPATH

  DEFENDER

  HURRICANE

  Set in the 25th Century of the Portal Future

  The Scavenger Exodus series:-

  SCAVENGER ALLIANCE

  Set in the 28th Century of the Portal Future

  The prequel novellas:-

  EARTH AND FIRE: An Earth Girl Novella

  EARTH AND AIR: An Earth Girl Novella

  FRONTIER: An Epsilon Sector Novella

  The Earth Girl trilogy:-

  EARTH GIRL

  EARTH STAR

  EARTH FLIGHT

  The Earth Girl prequel short story collection:-

  EARTH 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories

  Other short stories:-

  HERA 2781: A Military Short Story

  Set in the Game Future

  REAPER

  Please visit https://janetedwards.com/books to see the current full list of books.

  You can also make sure you don’t miss the next book by signing up to get new release updates

  About the Author

  Janet Edwards lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.

  Visit Janet at her website: www.janetedwards.com

  Follow Janet on
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JanetEdwardsAuthor

  Follow Janet on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanetEdwardsSF

  Sign up for new release updates: www.janetedwards.com/newsletter

  Preview of Scavenger Alliance

  2408. Humanity has travelled to the stars through interstellar portals, but the rebels and criminals were left behind on a ruined Earth. Eighteen-year-old Blaze is one of the last seven hundred people scavenging a living in an increasingly lethal New York. Her mother died six years ago. Her brother turned traitor. She believes her father is Donnell, the leader of the uneasy alliance between the remnants of the Earth Resistance and the old criminal gangs. She’s not sure what Donnell believes because he’s barely spoken to her since her brother betrayed him.

  Blaze has survived this long by being too unimportant to kill, but now the alliance is on the brink of starvation, and an old enemy is trying to seize power. When an aircraft carrying three privileged off-worlders crashes in New York, it adds more fuel to an already explosive situation, and Blaze is forced to step into the spotlight. Can the traitor’s sister convince Donnell, the warring divisions, and the off-worlders to work together to leave the death trap of New York? Blaze thinks that failure will mean the death of everyone she knows, but then she discovers the off-worlders’ secret. The stakes here are far higher than just seven hundred lives.

  Scavenger Alliance is set in the same future timeline as the Earth Girl trilogy, but takes place several centuries earlier, and features an ancestor of the trilogy’s main character, Jarra.

  Chapter One

  I was the only person who saw the aircraft arrive in New York, and I didn’t realize what it was at first. I’d just stepped out on to the roof of the Americas Parliament House, when I noticed the small speck in the dawn sky.

  Logic told me there was no need for me to worry about anything overhead. I was standing on top of the highest building in the area, so should be perfectly safe from the gliding attacks of the local predators. The crisp carpet of snow under my feet was an extra reassurance, since none of those predators would be out hunting while the temperature was below freezing point.

  I still stopped to stare upwards and make sure this was only a bird. My years in New York had taught me that letting down your guard, even for a second, could get you injured or killed.

  I couldn’t work out what species of bird this was, but it was definitely far too high in the air to be anything dangerous. I forgot about it, fixed my eyes on where the blue, planet Earth flag was proudly silhouetted against the rising sun, and gave the distinctive, right hand on heart salute of the Earth Resistance.

  My regular morning ritual completed, I would normally go back inside, but today I lingered with my eyes fixed on the Earth Resistance flag, brooding on the ominous fact that today was my eighteenth birthday. My position in the Resistance had been uncertain ever since my brother left, and turning eighteen would probably make my life even more difficult.

  I was reluctant to go back indoors in case I found my worries becoming harsh reality, but the icy January wind was finding its way through my layers of clothing, and triggering an ache in the left arm that I’d broken last summer. I sighed, turned back to the door to the stairs, and then remembered the strange bird and gave a last glance upwards.

  I was startled to see the bird was much closer now, vastly bigger than I’d thought, and didn’t look like any kind of living creature I’d ever seen. It took me a moment longer to work out this had to be an aircraft. I’d heard people talk about how such things were commonplace centuries ago, used for long distance travel in the days before the invention of portal technology, but I’d imagined them having wide flapping wings rather than stubby, rigid structures.

  The aircraft must have come from behind Fence, flying casually over the vicious wire that protected the respectable citizens from undesirables like me, but why? The last of the citizens had abandoned New York in 2389, withdrawing to their new settlements the summer before I was born, so what had brought them here now?

  I stood there for another couple of minutes, watching the aircraft fly straight overhead and across the Hudson River to skyscraper-crammed Manhattan. It stopped there, hung motionless in the sky like a hovering bird of prey for a few seconds, then slowly dropped vertically downwards and vanished behind one of the buildings.

  An enemy aircraft had landed in our city! I forced myself out of my stupor, ran back inside, clattered down the narrow flight of stairs, and then came to an abrupt halt as I saw the man walking down the corridor ahead of me. He had his back to me, just an anonymous shape in a thick, hooded coat, but the flickering lights of the gun tendrils on his right hand and wrist showed this had to be Donnell. Now that Kasim was dead, Donnell was the only person here with an Armed Agent weapon.

  I hesitated. Given my dubious situation, I normally gave messages to one of Donnell’s officers rather than approaching him directly myself, but he needed to hear this news at once.

  “Sir!” I hurried up to him.

  Donnell tugged down his hood as he turned to face me, and I saw his eyebrows lift in surprise.

  “I just saw an aircraft!” I said. “It landed over the other side of the river in Manhattan.”

  Donnell frowned for a moment, and then shrugged. “I can’t believe the citizens have suddenly started flying aircraft after all these years. It must be some off-worlders checking the art galleries and museums for anything worth salvaging. Forget about it, Blaze.”

  “Forget about it?” I repeated his words in shocked disbelief. The idea of the citizens trespassing in our territory had been bad enough, but the thought of off-worlders coming here and taking whatever they wanted was even worse. “But we’re the Earth Resistance. It’s our duty to stop the off-world colonies leeching resources from Earth. It says so in our charter!”

  Donnell ran his fingers through his thick brown hair, with its scattering of silver strands that added distinction to his legendary good looks. “That’s true, but I wrote that charter over thirty years ago, back when there were still a couple of billion people living on Earth. Everything is totally different now.”

  There weren’t billions of people living on Earth now, there were probably less than a hundred million, and only just over seven hundred of us here in New York, but I thought that made it even more important to defend our rights. Angry words burst out of me. “We should still go to Manhattan and …”

  Donnell lifted a hand to stop me. “Calm down, Blaze.”

  I was horrified to realize I’d been shouting at Donnell. I hastily shut up.

  “You mustn’t tell anyone else about the aircraft,” Donnell continued. “Everyone in the Resistance would react like you, wanting to get their revenge on the off-worlders who bled our home world dry of resources to found their bright new colony worlds, while the members of the other divisions are even more bitter about the way those bright new worlds refused entry to anyone with a criminal record. Whatever I said, the whole of the alliance would go racing off to Manhattan, and that could get us all killed.”

  His attitude suddenly made sense to me. “You’re worried the off-worlders could have advanced weapons?”

  “That’s one problem. The other is that it’s nearly two months since the winter fever hit us. Only a handful of people recovered in time to go out hunting and fishing before the last blizzard. Now everyone’s finally well again, we have to focus all our efforts on getting more food before the next blizzard arrives, because we’ve nothing left to eat.”

  Donnell’s words shocked me. I’d known we were short of food, there had been strict rationing for weeks, but … “The food reserves are gone?”

  “We’ll be eating most of the remaining food for breakfast.”

  “I didn’t realize that,” I murmured.

  “I discussed the situation with the leaders of the other four divisions. We made a joint decision not to frighten people with the truth, because we didn’t want anyone heroically heading out into the blizzard and getting thems
elves killed in an attempt to get more food. I’m only telling you about this now so you’ll understand why I’m asking you to forget about that aircraft. However wrong it feels to let off-worlders ransack Manhattan, we must hunt food rather than invaders today. We have children to feed.”

  I nodded in reluctant acceptance.

  “It’s not as if we’ll ever risk going to Manhattan for supplies again after that disastrous trip last summer,” Donnell added. “Anything left there is going to rot away and fall apart, so the off-worlders might as well take whatever they want.”

  I winced at the mention of that trip to Manhattan. I considered myself lucky to have escaped with nothing worse than a broken arm, because one of Donnell’s officers had been killed.

  “I won’t tell anyone about the aircraft, sir, but if it takes off when everyone is out hunting then they’ll all see it.”

  “It doesn’t matter if people see the off-worlders leaving. They won’t be able to fly after them.”

  There was a moment of silence after that. I thought our conversation was over, and was about to leave when Donnell spoke again.

  “Happy birthday, Blaze.”

  He’d remembered my birthday! I gave him a wary look. “Uh, thank you, sir.”

  “It’s time that we discussed your future.”

  Panic stabbed at me. What did Donnell mean by that? Did he feel that my eighteenth birthday marked the end of his debatable responsibility for me? I waited in tense silence to hear what Donnell would say next, but his attention had shifted to something behind me. I turned and saw Machico, the eldest of Donnell’s officers, was coming down the corridor towards us.